NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

Methods for manipulating file specifications.

METHODS

canonpath

On MacOS, there's nothing to be done. Returns what it's given.

catdir

Concatenate two or more directory names to form a complete path ending with a directory. Put a trailing : on the end of the complete path if there isn't one, because that's what's done in MacPerl's environment.

The fundamental requirement of this routine is that

File::Spec->catdir(split(":",$path)) eq $path

But because of the nature of Macintosh paths, some additional possibilities are allowed to make using this routine give reasonable results for some common situations. Here are the rules that are used. Each argument has its trailing ":" removed. Each argument, except the first, has its leading ":" removed. They are then joined together by a ":".

To get a relative path (one beginning with :), begin the first argument with : or put a "" as the first argument.

If you don't want to worry about these rules, never allow a ":" on the ends of any of the arguments except at the beginning of the first.

Under MacPerl, there is an additional ambiguity. Does the user intend that

File::Spec->catfile("LWP","Protocol","http.pm")

be relative or absolute? There's no way of telling except by checking for the existence of LWP: or :LWP, and even there he may mean a dismounted volume or a relative path in a different directory (like in @INC). So those checks aren't done here. This routine will treat this as absolute.

catfile

Concatenate one or more directory names and a filename to form a complete path ending with a filename. Since this uses catdir, the same caveats apply. Note that the leading : is removed from the filename, so that

File::Spec->catfile($ENV{HOME},"file");

and

File::Spec->catfile($ENV{HOME},":file");

give the same answer, as one might expect.

curdir

Returns a string representing the current directory.

devnull

Returns a string representing the null device.

rootdir

Returns a string representing the root directory. Under MacPerl, returns the name of the startup volume, since that's the closest in concept, although other volumes aren't rooted there.

tmpdir

Returns a string representation of the first existing directory from the following list or '' if none exist:

$ENV{TMPDIR}

updir

Returns a string representing the parent directory.

file_name_is_absolute

Takes as argument a path and returns true, if it is an absolute path. In the case where a name can be either relative or absolute (for example, a folder named "HD" in the current working directory on a drive named "HD"), relative wins. Use ":" in the appropriate place in the path if you want to distinguish unambiguously.

path

Returns the null list for the MacPerl application, since the concept is usually meaningless under MacOS. But if you're using the MacPerl tool under MPW, it gives back $ENV{Commands} suitably split, as is done in :lib:ExtUtils:MM_Mac.pm.